


The Habit

by Here_Be_Spideychelle



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: ADHD!Peter Parker, Anxiety!Peter Parker, Coping Mechanisms, F/M, Peter has a supporting family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-13
Updated: 2018-03-13
Packaged: 2019-03-30 18:42:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13957662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Here_Be_Spideychelle/pseuds/Here_Be_Spideychelle
Summary: Peter Parker, who has always suffered from ADHD and anxiety, has formed unique coping mechanisms





	The Habit

Peter had a sort of habit. Not a bad habit, or a good one. It just was...a habit. This wasn’t a habit he shared with others often. Or at all. 

In the era of texting and all the convenience it brought, phone calls weren’t exactly common place for any of Peter’s contacts, but they weren’t unheard of. When in need of an immediate response they might call him or vice versa, but even then, texting was still more common.

Peter Parker also called his friends and family when he was severely distressed, emotionally or otherwise. And therein lies the habit. He didn’t want it to become a thing, but when his attacks hit....he couldn’t help it. It was just all too overwhelming, drowning in nothing, mind rushing with endless unbelievably heavy thoughts, the crushing feeling, the  _trapped_ feeling- It was all just too much. He needed an anchor to reality. When he couldn’t grasp any other foothold, he would grab his phone and dial one of three people.

Whoever he called would depend on how serious it was. More often than not, he would end up calling Ned. He was such a constant presence, a  **stone** , in Peter’s life, that it was his first instinct. Calming Calls with Ned Leeds usually involved Peter bringing up some upcoming movie or show, or maybe a project they were planning. There also tended to be a little bit of Peter avoiding why he sounded weird or why he called at that moment in particular, but Peter had learned how to brush off topics by now.

Next on the list was May. He would call May when things got a bit too personal. When something started picking at him that he had kept down since he was little. Comfort Calls with May would be made up of Peter asking her to remind him of stories she used to tell him when he was younger, or sometimes stories of when he was younger. Other times he would just ask about her day or plans for the week. He just always tried to have the most normal conversation he could manage in that moment. May seemed to hear the uneasiness in his voice, but she never pressed him too much about it. She seemingly understood what he was asking without Peter ever saying a word.

The last person on his list was the last resort, for the most desperate of situations, when it was worse than ever before. Michelle Jones. He added her to the Comfort Call list early on in their friendship, and he could never pin down why. She was just the easiest to talk to when he was in that kind of a state. Their conversations were flexible. They could go from talking about political issues, to whatever had made him laugh uncontrollably that day, to their life stories, to recapping the Decathlon meet that day. All within a matter of minutes. It always felt natural though. That’s just how they were. There was also something about her voice that seemed to bring him back to reality a little easier.

The last time he had to call MJ he had already broken 4 stim toys.  _He really did mean to talk to Tony about making stronger ones._

This time might’ve been a little worse. He was recovering from a major battle with Mac Gargan, that guy from the ferry he nearly destroyed sophomore year. Apparently he got a suit from the same guy who made Liz’s dad his Vulture suit. Gargan’s suit was less focused on transportation, more so on inflicting pain. He had a scorpion style robotic tail, tipped with a large blade that contained some sort of poison Peter had never seen before.

During the fight Peter took a hit straight to the chest from the very tip of that blade which took him out of the fight completely. Gargan made his escape while Peter collapsed and fought for consciousness. 

“I have alerted Mr. Stark of your condition and location and help is on the way.” Came the AI from Peter’s suit.

“Thanks Karen.” Peter responded with a groan. 

“I have also taken the liberties of analyzing your blood and the material the criminal injected into you. It appears that you must maintain consciousness or you may risk coma or death.”

“Great. Thanks Karen.” For a moment Peter lay there, concentrating on keeping awake, but he still caught himself nearly passing out. Then he had an idea, “Karen?”

“Yes Peter?”

“...call MJ.”

“Calling MJ.” 

Even though she didn’t have a face to emote with, Peter could hear a proud smile in Karen’s voice. Then after a few rings she picked up.

“Sup loser?”

“Hey MJ!” he tried his best to sound excited and very much not like he was slowly dying in an empty parking lot.

“So I’m guessing you just don’t sleep then.”

“Huh?”

“It’s three am, Parker.”

“...is it? I guess I lost track of-wait, were you awake at three am?”

“Irrelevant.”

This conversation went on for another then minutes or so, eventually shifting to the out of place posters the school had been making for events lately. Suddenly everything started fading. There was some wooshing, something that sounded like Tony calling out something, and the last thing he could take in was MJ talking about how backwards the ideals of something like Winter Formal were. Then everything faded to black.

When he woke up Peter was in a hospital bed at the Avengers Base with some sort of scanner just finishing then wheeling itself away from him. 

“He’s up!” shouted Ned, causing Peter to shift his focus to his left, where he found Tony, May, Ned, and MJ sitting next to each other in chairs near his bed. Well, at least they were sitting, now they were standing next to him. 

All at once Tony, Ned, and May began talking about how thankful they were they he was awake this soon, how lucky he was that nothing worse happened, and how insane that was. Peter did his best to reassure them that he was fine, he had it under control...until he had a tail.

Eventually Peter convinced them to go and eat, after all they had been there nearly all night. They also insisted on bringing him something back, he wasn’t allowed to leave the bed until whatever this wasn’t killing him anymore. A few moments after they did, MJ finally stood from her seat and slowly walked over.

“Hey MJ! I-”

“What the hell were you thinking?”

“I was taking out bad guys. Spider-Man stuff.”

“Bad guys with high tech weapons and a personal vengeance against you! With no help! Are you insane Parker?”

“...how did you know?”

“Karen told us. She also told us that you never bothered to call anyone.”

“Not true.”

“Bullshit! You went headlong into a suicide mission! You could have  ** _died_** , Peter!” Peter could have sworn he saw her tearing up in that moment.

“Well, yeah.”

“So why?! What the fuck Peter? You have people who care, really legitimately care about you, and you’re going out there with no help to make them worry!”

Peter’s gaze fell to the floor. He couldn’t stand to see her like this, “...I did call someone.” he mumbled

“Bull. shit.”

“I called you.”

“You did. To shoot the shit before you went to battle.”

“Not true.”

“Then what the fuck is true, Peter?!”

“I-I called because I needed to stay awake. I called you because I needed a-an anchor. When I call you things get a little easier, like I can do things I feel like I can’t normally.”

“...you say this like you’ve done it before.” 

Peter responds with a small shrug, “Whenever thing get..intense, you’re kinda one of the people that can make things seem manageable.” He glanced upward again and she seemed to be very seriously thinking about something. “You’ve been up a while, you should sleep.”

“You are  _not_ getting rid of me that easily, Parker.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

* * *

 

Another fifteen minutes later Tony, Ned, and May came back into the infirmary and then immediately left it again. The second they entered they found a curled up Peter and MJ on the hospital bed, far too into sleep than should be possible for two teenagers who were awake half an hour ago. Scorpion problems and Peter’s injuries could wait. For now. 


End file.
